Today, we took the test and comparison in specification as well as price of four Sharks Steam Mop Floor Cleaner:
Shark Steam Mop Battle: Shark Genius vs Lift Away Pro vs S3501 vs S1000
- Shark Genius Hard Floor Cleaning System Pocket (S5003D) Steam Mop
- Shark Steam Mop S1000
- Shark Lift-Away Pro
- Shark S3501 – Shark Steam Pocket Mop Hard Floor Cleaner
The results are surprising. Although we have done some work with Shark in the past, this is not a sponsored review. We bought all these steam mops ourselves and as always, the article we give you the honest opinion about the best Shark Steam Mop and reliable reasons for the assessments.
What are the Steam Mop and Why it is neccessary?
Steam mops have water tanks that is filled up and producing steam inside or behind the reusable washable microfiber mopping pads. This steam accomplishes two things.
First, it is easier to clean difficult stains and second, it disinfects the floor without using chemicals. Meantimes, a regular mop is incharge for mopping hard floors, whether that was for light duty cleanup, sticky messes or whole house cleaning.
Its distinct advantage from traditional mop would be that steam mops are more effective at cleaning Tufts stains. They disinfect without chemicals because of the heat of the steam and they’re more convenient than traditional one because you don’t have to fill up a mop bucket, go through all the wringing out and rinsing of the mop every few minutes.
How do they steam and mop?
The Steam Mops that we review are the typical models of Shark placed in order from least to most expensive. The S1000 and S3510 are cheapest ones which basically the same price while the Genius is the more expensive one and the Lift-Away Pro is the only one that can be detached handly then use in a variety of other applications.
The Shark Genius and Lift-Away Pro also have a feature that the other two don’t, which is called steam blaster technology. This apply for a tough stain where the steam flips the pad down then engages a spray nozzle on the base of the unit to loosen up the stain by steaming.
In regular mode, the steam just travels through the interior of the head housing and saturating spring on the base of the unit – the Springsteen to loosen up the mopping pad as usual. Basically, there are two steam options with the more expensive units.
The other main differences really lie in the mop heads of the Genius and the Lift-Away Pro which have an insimilar style mopping pad with longer fibers. They also have an easier way to release and attach the pads.
The S3510 has double-sided pad but it is more difficult to take off and attach since there is no automatic release button as those other two. The S1000 is the only one that just has one side pad so it is impossible in flipping over which considered as an awesome and convenient Shark’s feature.
Also, it doesn’t have an automatic release button but is actually held on by Velcro.
Which one is the ideal steam mop system in cleaning ability? – Let’s check our experiments
The S1000 and S3510 are operated by a pumping motion where the steam is pressurized manually while the others are automatically by choosing a setting with the control panel. In a test drive on a V-8 and grape juice, it is hardly noticed that, with the cheaper ones, the mopping motion is all required to keep it perfectly primed.
We tested dries on V8 painted surface and great juice stains as well as small and large spots on a few different floor types then found that all four steams really did an excellent job by picking up really difficult dries on sticky stains. Obviously, the newer models as the Genius and the Lift-Away Pro should have done a better job with normal mopping motion on Tufts stains than older ones.
Unexpectedly, there is not much advantage in using the steam blaster. In other words, it seemed that in this limited amount of testing to pick up the stains in about the same amount of time, whether using the steam blaster or not leads to no significant difference. In our opinion, it would rather to clean by just mop as usual than the steam blaster to save time.
As the results, cheaper purple one – S3510 becomes the ideal steam mop in terms of cleaning ability. In our experiment, it takes less time than other to completely get a stain. It is questioned that whether it is because of the different style microfiber pad or the slightly different steam channel design. Although the other two newer ones were almost identical in terms of cleaning ability, S3510 was just a little bit better.
How about add-in value?
Since it was so close, other factors are more critical in our comparison. As mentioned, the Lift-Away Pro is the only one that comes with attachments which adds a lot of value for just a little bit extra money.
The well-designed attachments including a garment steamer takes the wrinkles out of shirt quickly and conveniently. Apparently, it can work for curtains or other applications as well. Also, the three-foot extension hose called pocket cleaning tool easily remove not only the metal in a shower and the sinks in a bathroom but also a lot of other applications as well.
Last but not least, the triangle scrubber head can help to get hard-to-reach places like corners and edges.
Does design makes any difference?
Some other things to consider are cord length and water tank size, especially if you want to use these for whole house cleaning. There are high hopes for the wave of electric roller style mops that came out, but we still have to looking forward the coming models in the future.
Also, trouble come unexpectedly as cleaning up the mop. There are just not practical or cost-effective mop replacements at all. Anyway, after all of our test, these Sharks are a genuine upgrade from a traditional mop system in general so that it is recommended for housewives to be traded for a mop and a bucket.
Our verdict
| Shark 1000 | Shark 3501 | Shark Genius | Shark Lift-Away Pro | |
| Attachments | No | No | No | Yes |
| Steam blaster Technology | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Sides of pad | Single | Double | Double | Double |
| Releasing mode | Manually | Manually | Automatically | Automatically |
| Price Check | Price Check | Price Check | Price Check |
Finally, there are two nominees for the title the best Shark Steam Mop which are S3510 and the shark Lift-Away Pro.
The S3510 was better at cleaning and much cheaper but its drawbacks are not having an automatic pad release and not having the steam blaster. Technology is not a big advantage in comparison with the price and efficiency in some case.
However, if you don’t mind the extra money, the Lift-Away Pro is certainly the best choice. It has a nearly similar cleaning ability, a super large tank, a long cord length. Uniquely, it can be used with attachments which remind us the convenience and variety of application.
